It was the LZ-7 Deutschland airship built by the Zeppelin Company and was on its first commercial flight, leaving Dusseldorf with 23 passengers, mainly journalists and VIPs.
Because of engine trouble and bad weather, plus pilot inexperience, it crashed into the Teutoburger Forest, but there were no serious injuries suffered by those on board.Subsequently, between 1910 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, zeppelins carried over 34,000 passengers on over 1,500 flights, without a single injury.
